Oozing pus is generally white, so it should be
perfectly fine for a wedding. Casey sure has a lot of it going on, but if truth
be told, the bride-to-be already had serious cold feet before leaving on her bachelorette
getaway. Unfortunately, she came back with a nasty case of body horror in Chad
Archibald’s Bite (trailer here), which screens during
the 2015 Chicago International Film Festival.
While carousing in Costa Rica, Jill constantly
films everything, but not because this is a found footage movie. She is just
annoying. However, the source of her passive aggression quickly becomes
apparent. She has long carried a torch for Jared Kennedy, the fiancé Casey is
considering jilting. Still, they have plenty of Latin American fun, despite the
mysterious whatever that bit Casey while she was bobbing in a secluded swimming
hole. In fact, she had so much fun, she even lost her wedding ring.
Obviously, things are awkward for Casey when
she gets home, especially since she feels like death warmed over. She comes
close to breaking it off, which seems like an even better idea after a frosty
encounter with her prospective mother-in-law, who also happens to be her
landlord. However, her body starts to change before she can do anything
decisive. Her bite wound festers something fierce, leaking grossness
everywhere. Her skin gets scaly and her behavior takes a belligerent,
anti-social turn. Suddenly, there are red mutant caviar eggs from Hell all over
the apartment. Yet, we are told the smell is the worst of all.
So yeah, body horror. Yet, Bite is way grabbier than most Kafka
knockoffs because of Casey’s sharply drawn relationships with her friends, “cool
chick” Kirsten and uber-bitch Jill. In fact, Archibald and screenwriter Jayme
LaForest depict their conversations and interactions with a lot of truth and
attitude.
Of course Bite
is first and foremost about goo and disturbingly colored bodily fluids. Clearly,
special makeup artist Jason Derushie had a field day crafting one freaky effect
after another, the grossness of each should well please genre fans. Still, Elma
Begovic gives a really solid performance under all that gook. Denise Yuen is
also refreshingly down-to-earth and sensitively engaging as Kirsten. On the
other hand, it is hard to understand why anyone would be interested in a
shrinking violet like Jordan Gray’s Kennedy, with his anemic Justin Bieber
facial hair.
Although Bite
does not reinvent body horror, it executes the Cronenbergian subgenre with
superior characterization and gross-out effects. Frankly, it might be Archibald’s
best film to date, representing a major improvement over Ejecta and The Drownsman.
Recommended for horror fans in the mood for some claustrophobic grotesqueness, Bite screens tonight (10/23) and
tomorrow night (10/24), as part of this year’s Chicago International Film
Festival.
